Social Networking on The Huffington Post

Russell Wiseman, Tennessee Mayor, Assails 'Muslim President' For Pre-Empting 'Peanuts'

2009-12-04T10:57:22Z

In case you didn't know, President Barack Obama's West Point address, in which he announced his intention to escalate the war in Afghanistan, pre-empted the broadcast of A Charlie Brown Christmas on ABC. As it turns out, at least one person was crackpotted enough to believe that the whole point of the address was to prevent this cartoon from being shown. That person is Arlington, Tennessee Mayor Russell Wiseman. He actually exists. And he made the mistake of bleating out his strident, weird take on the matter on Facebook, and is acting all aggrieved that people noticed.

His Facebook message read in part:

Ok, so, this is total crap, we sit the kids down to watch 'The Charlie Brown Christmas Special' and our muslim [sic] president is there, what a load.....try to convince me that wasn't done on purpose. Ask the man if he believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and he will give you a 10 minute disertation [sic] about it....w...hen the answer should simply be 'yes'....

First off, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is a twenty-five minute dissertation on Jesus Christ being the Son of God. More importantly, in this time of giving, I'll point out that "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is available on DVD from Amazon for $13.99. Maybe one of Wiseman's Facebook friends (maybe even the one with a conscience who sold Wiseman out to the press out of a higher obligation, perhaps instilled by his or her belief in Jesus Christ) should purchase it for him, and he need never watch a speech about a serious topic like war again.

Wiseman wasn't done expounding on the subject, by a long shot. He went on to suggest that "you obama [sic] people need to move to a muslim [sic] country," and adding, "you know, our forefathers had it written in the original Constitution that ONLY property owners could vote, if that has stayed in there, things would be different........"

Yes. Many, many fine citizens of this great nation would be disenfranchised! Just like...Jesus would want?

So, here's the really deep thoughts about The Way We Live Now from Ellyn Angelotti of the Poynter Institute:

"A lot of people think Facebook is private so only a limited number of people can see their post," Angelotti said. "But the reality is that it can be made public.

"You've got to be careful. The same social rules that apply in real life should be applied to the virtual life."

This will probably fall on deaf ears, because Wiseman is up in arms that his thoughts that he typed onto a website are now something he has to own up to. His countering argument:

"It's ridiculous for someone to send my Facebook post...You guys are trying to make a mountain out of a molehill."

Are you afraid of responsibility, Russell Wiseman? If you are, then you have hypengyophobia. That will be five cents, please!

MORE:
Arlington mayor fires at Obama online [The Commercial Appeal]

[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]

Get HuffPost Politics On Facebook and Twitter!

FacebookAgent: A Way To View Private Facebook Profiles Or Dangerous Malware?

2009-12-03T10:19:46Z

There's plenty of buzz lately about a tool called FacebookAgent, which supposedly allows users to view private Facebook profiles after a simple download.

But the FacebookAgent site seems sketchy and is likely worth avoiding.

A number of links on the site including "Learn about Facebook Agent" and "Try the latest BETA version" all lead to the same download page which automatically begins installing the software to your computer. Facebook Agent claims to offer a "fast start-up," "fast using" and a "special bonus" of using the tool at work.

The About page is also strange with a misspelled HTML title tag of "Privacy Poolicy Statement" and this seemingly critical clause:

All actions taken through and in this application are on full responsibility of the user. Facebook Agent is in no condition responsible of any harm, damage or violations done while using this application.

Some blogs have already weighed in on whether or not Facebookagent is truly malware, and one that says yes even provides screenshots of what happens to your comptuer after downloading - unwanted popups and strange computer activity.

The lack of news articles or write-ups from legitimate blog sites adds to the suspicion, and in all likelihood this is a site to avoid.

One For The Table: Checking It Twice

2009-12-02T16:12:46Z

This is not about making a Christmas list, although I should do that, I guess. It is about my need to check and monitor things constantly, as if I were the Chief of the Baguette Patrol for a supercollider. Not all things. I do not monitor the dust balls in the corners of my dining room, the balance in my checking account, or Sam's grades. These things I consider on a need-to-know basis; if company is coming, I vacuum, if I get a menacing call from Comcast, I check the bank account, and if Sam claims he has no homework for the third day in a row, I check his grades using the magic of Power School. I know people who are very concerned about one or all of the above, which is why they have cleaner houses, better cash flow and more disciplined children than I do.

The things I am compelled to monitor include my e-mail, Facebook, my blog stats, and (when I am away from my computer) my Blackberry. I cannot walk by the computer without looking at my Inbox, deleting all irrelevant items, and (unless I am dragged away by a raging family member) answering the legitimate messages. My idea of "legitimate" is very expansive, and includes comments left on Facebook, requests from my boss, and newsy missives from my friends far away. I feel a great sense of accomplishment when my Inbox is "cleaned out," and am genuinely tormented by items that cannot readily be deleted, answered or put into a folder (because if I put them into a folder I will forget about them and fail to do something important). I will sometimes "play Inbox" as one might play Brickbreaker; sitting at the computer answering e-mails, checking back to see what's new and requires deletion, response or filing, and getting back to answering the next one on the list. When there is nothing left, I win.

I also check blog stats as often as I can get away with it, sometimes telling myself I won't look until after I have folded all of the laundry, sometimes having to cut a deal with myself in which I can hit "refresh" after every three pieces folded. (Socks do not count until they are actually matched and rolled). I get excited by big jumps, discouraged by static figures, and intrigued by where visitors are coming from and going to. Does a surge in views of a certain post mean that it's fabulous, and people are passing it on? (Ecstasy). Or does it mean that I stole an image of the cast of "The Hills" that everyone wants, and I come up first in a Google Image search? (Agony). If someone clicks on "feedburner" does that mean they subscribed, or that they went to look for another blog they might like better? Am I being bookmarked because they want to read what I write, or because they want to be able to find that picture of "The Hills" again? Why do I get people searching for "old tv," "cornucopia," "woman crying" and "jamie oliver hair" (all real searches) instead of "bullying," "popularity" or "parenting?!" (It occurs to me that if I stopped poaching images from other sources I wouldn't have this problem, but it seems unlikely that I will reform. How else am I going to get a picture of a baguette falling into a supercollider?!).

I monitor Facebook to make sure that I never. Miss. Anything. (Admittedly bizarre behavior for a person who famously doesn't answer her phone much of the time). I do not want to miss the rare sighting of an elusive college friend, a cute YouTube video with dancing babies, or an opportunity to be the first to make the witty comment. When I have to step away from the computer, I monitor the Blackberry. I have been known to settle down for a cozy nap with Rob, book-in-hand, with the Blackberry on "Quiet," placed where I can watch it from the corner of my eye as I "read," ready to pounce if the flash goes from green to red. It is usually just that person I forgot to block from Twitter advertising muscle-building protein powder, but it could be a blog comment from an editor at the "New Yorker" who received one of my posts from an observant friend, and wants to publish my entire output over the next few years.

It seems that, for those of us who are compulsive checkers, we check the things that most directly relate to our own unique pathologies. The people who become apoplectic at the sight of a ring left on a coffee table (in fact, in my opinion, anyone who even owns a set of coasters that were not a cheap-ass gift from a Secret Santa exchange) act from a deep-seated fear of mess and loss of control, literal or figurative. Frequent balance checkers are afraid of shame and poverty, and by making sure things are in order at the bank, they prevent themselves from receiving dunning calls or having a nasty surprise at the ATM. Grade-monitors fear that their children will not succeed (and may be projecting their own fears and regrets onto their offspring) and make themselves feel secure by discovering that Billy's science grade has plummeted to a B+ and Doing Something About It. Clearly, these people are all crazy.

I, on the other hand, am motivated by a charming and possibly even raffish need for approval. I want to, need to, have to please anyone who comes to my inbox, my blog, or my Facebook Newsfeed, and I believe they will all like me better (and be more likely to remember that they have a cousin who is an editor at the "New Yorker") if I am on top of it all, every waking second. If I were this vigilant about cleaning, or financial planning, or making Sam do his homework, I would surely be happier, safer, and a better person, yet conventional and dull. As it is, I am quick to respond to a message or comment with the appropriate level of wit, gravity or compassion, with hopes that I am a shining star in the firmament of all e-mailers, Facebookers and blog readers in my orbit.

Another time, we will address the possibility that there is something seriously the matter with me.

- By Ann Nichols

Christine Whelan: The 10 Most Common Feelings Worldwide: We Feel Fine

2009-12-01T16:45:21Z

Feel festive, cheerful and blessed around the holidays--but then slide into the doldrums in the first weeks of the New Year? Financially illiterate and then suddenly started blogging about how the ups and downs of the stock market impacted you emotionally? Felt patriotic--or depressed--when Obama was elected?

Oh yes, the internet knows.

Talk about following the zeitgeist: Computer programmers Sep Kamvar and Jonathan Harris have spent more than four years collecting some 12 million emotions posted on Internet blogs. Turns out we're a pretty predicable bunch: Patterns of the calendar, news events and even the weather influence how we say we feel. And as an increasing number of bloggers worldwide share their lives publicly, we're developing a new relationship with computers, our fellow bloggers and ourselves.

And this holiday season, you can track your emotions in their strikingly beautiful, glossy gift book, We Feel Fine (Scribner, Dec. 1), that uses sophisticated computer science to underpin its findings about modern human emotion. The brainchild of Kamvar, a professor of computational mathematics at Stanford University, and Harris, a systems designer, the data collected comes from a program that scans all blogs every few minutes and extracts the sentences that contain "I feel" or "I am feeling." Since blogs often have public profiles, the duo was able to determine the gender, age, and location of the people expressing these emotions to boot.

Kamvar said he and Harris hope to tell both macro stories of emotional trends, including informational graphics and maps, and micro stories of individuals complete with a photo and corresponding feeling. "We wanted the reader to be able to seamlessly transition between the high-level statistics of emotion and the individual stories that make up these statistics."

"Our [original] intent was to show that there was beauty and humanity in the web," said Kamvar of their 2005 website born as social networking media was coming of age. " As time went on and we collected large amounts of data, we realized that we were also building an archive of emotional history."

As We Feel Fine: An Almanac of Human Emotionhit the shelves, Kamvar, a college classmate, sat down with me for a Q&A:

What are the top 10 most common feelings 2006-2009?

• Better (as in "I feel better" or "I am feeling better now")
• Bad
• Good
• Guilty
• Sorry
• Sick
• Well
• Comfortable
• Great
• Happy

What about September through November of last year when the market was tanking? Did the feelings reported differ from the average?

We saw a rise in anxiety during the fall of 2008. Also, prior to the crash, there were very few people in the general public who felt anything at all about the economy - the word "economy" was rarely used in sentences that had the words "I feel" in them. In the fall of 2008, that all changed.

How about on the day after Obama was elected?

On Election Day and the day after Election Day, the feeling "proud" spiked to the highest levels that we'd seen in the 4 years that we've been collecting emotions. The number of people who expressed feeling "excited" and "patriotic" also spiked. There was also a smaller spike in people feeling "depressed."

We enjoyed analyzing the types of emotions elicted by the candidates over the course of the campaign. By doing that, we were able to compute real-time approval ratings.

Any other big event that showed a dip or spike in particular emotions?

Michael Jackson's death had a pronounced effect on emotions in the U.S.-- which was one of the biggest dips in happiness that we've seen. [And] notably, MJ's approval rating also rose dramatically after his death.

Are men's reported feelings different from women's reported feelings?

Absolutely. Women express their emotions far more frequently than men, and have a more nuanced vocabulary to describe them. The feelings expressed by men tend to be more individualistic (e.g. "I feel proud") while the feelings expressed by women are more interconnected (e.g. "I feel loved").

You analyze how people feel during certain weather conditions--why?

Because we could. We knew the time and location when each feeling was expressed, so our program could look at existing weather databases and figure out the weather in that time/location.

The findings are not surprising - sunny weather is correlated with more happiness than gloomy weather, but other factors (like age) are much stronger influencers on emotion.

People in different age brackets report different levels of frequencies of feelings (older people are more likely to feel gratitude than younger people, for example). Do you think that is true over time, or are we seeing particular generational and cohort differences here?

Some of the biggest emotional differences come from people in different age groups - for example, teens' feelings involve angst and adrenaline more often than people in their 50s. Given the nature of the differences, I think the reasons are deeper than specific generational dissimilarities.

As an example, we noticed that the meaning of happiness shifts as people get older. Younger people tend to associate happiness with excitement, while older people are more likely to associate happiness with calm. We followed this up with some research with Cassie Mogilner at UPenn and Jennifer Aaker at Stanford, where we found that this was due in part to a greater sense of presence as people get older. By influencing young people to think about the present, we could make them define happiness as older people do, and by influencing old people to think about the future, we could make them define happiness as young people do.

What is the most surprising finding of the book?

Americans express their feelings about sex less than any other English-speaking country. And Americans express their feelings about God more than any other English-speaking country.

What are some of the methodological weaknesses of using blog data to chart emotions?

Well, there is definitely a population bias - bloggers tend to be younger and more tech-savvy than the overall population. You can account for the age bias by sampling equally from different age groups, but it's harder to account for other cultural biases.

Despite that, it's surprisingly accurate, in large part because you can perform studies with 2 million people, while most other methods take a much smaller sample.

In general, I like to use this method in conjunction with other methods to get a fuller picture.

How would you like to see this research used in the social sciences?

I think studies of online human expression (via blogs, Twitter, social networks, etc.) are a useful complement to existing methods in the social sciences, particularly because of their large scale and low cost. Ideally, I'd like research like this to play a similar role to the microarray in biology, which made gene expression experiments cheaper and quicker.

If you could have someone take away only three things from the book, what would you want them to understand/feel or learn?

• Our own biggest takeaway is that people are more the same than they are different. The book draws from people around the world, in all age groups, and the emotions are surprisingly universal. We came away from this book with a feeling of empathy and self-reflection, and we hope that it has the same effect on others.

• We'd also like this book to provoke some thought about the relationship between humans and computers. Millions of people are sharing their emotions with their computers on a daily basis, and slowly, we are teaching computers what it's like to be human.

• And finally, this book was possible because of a cultural shift, where people are increasingly living their lives in public on the web. This shift has both wondrous potentialities and its own dangers. But it is increasingly our reality and it's useful to reflect on both.

5 Ways To Combat Unemployment Loneliness

2009-12-01T09:17:49Z

Spending too much time alone can be detrimental, not just to your emotional well-being, but to your job search too! Staying connected with the rest of the world is not a luxury. It's a necessity!

Jim Cashel: A New Approach Towards Chinese Web Censorship

2009-11-30T12:41:01Z

During President Obama's recent trip to China, the US-China Joint Statement highlighted the need for improved bilateral communications in many areas. Unfortunately, one vital channel of communications is compromised: the Chinese government continues to heavily censor the web, particularly social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, most blogs, forums, wikis, and others). While the rest of the world strengthens both personal and professional communications on international sites, the Chinese aren't present.

This is a serious and intractable problem. Past entreaties to the Chinese government from both internal and external organizations have had little impact on censorship policy.

But this may change.

During his Shanghai town hall, President Obama made one bombshell announcement: the US would increase the number of American university students studying in China to 100,000 over four years.

While this new program is significant and beneficial for many reasons, it is likely to have marked impact on the state and effectiveness of Chinese censorship.

What better way to introduce Chinese youth to social media sites (and how to access them through various technologies) than to send 100,000 laptop-toting, Facebook-addicted American students to live in dormitories across the Middle Kingdom?

The State Department has yet to provide details on how this program will be organized. Nonetheless, Obama's student exchange program will not only improve language skills and mutual understanding, it will likely help open up the web in China as well.

Women Dominate Most Social Networking Sites, Survey Finds

2009-11-30T12:07:09Z

A survey of the demographic breakdown of men versus women on 19 social networking sites found that for the majority of social media sites studied, female users outnumber their male counterparts.

The Pingdom study, which looked social networking sites (like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace) as well as social news sites (like Digg, Reddit, and Slashdot), found that 84% of the sites (16 out of 19) had more female than male users.

Here are a few of Pingdom's findings:

The social news sites Digg, Reddit and Slashdot have significantly more male users than female. The standout here is Slashdot which takes male geekdom to new heights with 82% male users. :)

Twitter and Facebook have almost the same male-female ratio; Twitter with 59% female users and Facebook with 57%.

The most female-dominated site? Bebo (66% female users), closely followed by MySpace and Classmates.com (64%).

The average ratio of all 19 sites was 47% male, 53% female.

Here's a graph illustrating the gender breakdown of men and women across all 19 sites:

The 19 sites examined included: Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, Slashdot, Reddit, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, FriendFeed, Last.fm, Friendster, LiveJournal, Hi5, Imeem, Ning, Xanga, Classmates.com, Bebo, according to Pingdom.

Marika Holmgren: Simulating Reality In The Facebook Era: If You Unfriend Someone, Do They Still Exist?

2009-11-23T12:45:36Z

For those of us over the age of say, 30, navigating social media networking is like learning a new language. We are, as we've been aptly named, digital immigrants. During our formative years -- the ones where we started dating, navigating friendships, figuring out how to stay connected with people we liked and even the ones we didn't -- we relied on phone, face to face, and believe it or not -letters and notes. This new medium of instant, free, and global communication is simultaneously exhilarating and confusing, increasing the breadth and depth of those with whom we maintain relationships.

In his provocative and spot-on piece "The Boundaries of a Breakup," Charles Antin's Modern Love piece in The New York Times (Sunday, November 22, 2009) describes navigating a breakup in the Facebook era. After they part, he stays painfully up to date on her life and eventually, her new relationship by checking her Facebook page regularly. When he receives a friend request from his 83 year-old grandfather, he's thrilled. When he sees that among Grandpa's first 8 friends is Charles' ex, he's horrified and has a "Facebook" meltdown, and the subsequent heart to heart they have (by phone) leads Grandpa to trashes his Facebook account, despite Charles protests against it.

His tale illustrates how much Facebook is impacting and possibly directing our circles of friends. If we don't see someone on Facebook, can we pretend they don't exist?

I recently had a friend, with whom I've had an increasingly difficult relationship over the years, "unfriend" me, because she found it troubling to see what was happening in my life while we were not on great speaking terms. It seemed bothersome to her to know that I was carrying on, living my life, having fun with other "friends" while we were no longer close.

And this is of course, not unique. The "friending" and "unfriending" of people happens probably thousands of times a minute even now. The unfriending (which, by the way, was pronounced Top Word of 2009 by the Oxford New American Dictionary, and is now accepted as a verb), while less common, is an integral part of learning to speak this new language. It allows us to remove someone from our peripheral vision.

The current exponential explosion of Facebook is a unique moment in history. I imagine that youth today friend each other or not, based on your place in their social circle in real time. You will not have 40 year-olds, like myself, reconnecting after 20 years with the same kids you hardly talked to in high school, catching up on decades of someone's life by surfing through their Facebook photo albums, checking their status to see if they are married or single. Suddenly, the ghosts of homerooms past become tangible and very real, living their lives in a parallel -- but now visible -- universe.

My fellow Gen X'ers and I joke about checking up on our high school classmates to see if the popular kids who tormented us are pumping gas at our hometown Mobil stations, or if ex-boyfriends are sad and single after breaking our hearts, only to find that most are living mostly normal and content lives, neither perfect nor terrible.

Over time, it will become increasingly clear just what Facebook etiquette is. It's not likely to need definition, it will simply become a cultural norm. It will be birthed out of countless "Facebook Disasters", faux pas, and trial by fire. In much the same way you know intuitively whether or not it's appropriate to send your ex the birth announcement of your first child, you'll know whether or not you should "friend" him, or just let him live on in your mind exactly as he was the day you broke up.

Jason Mannino: Your Network Is Your Net Worth

2009-11-20T12:46:26Z

General consensus and research shows that the serious unemployment we are experiencing will lag 12-18 months behind any economic recovery. What's more, 60-80 percent of all jobs are filled through networking, inside contact and word of mouth. It is through networking contacts that you will hear about the hidden job market, which, are jobs that are filled without ever being publicized, especially in an economy where new jobs are few. You need to have a way to hear about jobs that are being filled due to attrition before they are ever advertised. Consider that in this job market your network is your net worth. Networking is one of the most critical aspects of both managing your career and searching for new work.

Many fear networking or judge it, thinking that networking is equivalent to brown nosing. Simply put, networking is the art of cultivating mutually beneficial relationships to support the achievement of professional goals. Ultimately, networking in regards to your job search means making human contact with people who may be in a position to help you. If 80 percent of individuals are landing their next opportunities through someone they know than I encourage you to generate the courage to take some of the bold action outlined here. It may feel a little scary, but strategic action and calculated risk will help bring your desire to get back to work with more velocity than otherwise may be possible.

Ideally, you are networking long before you are ever in a job search. When I was engaged as a recruiting consultant for major corporate organizations I often left executive meetings stunned, because, responses to my consistent question to executive hiring managers, "Who's in your network I can engage with that could help identify candidates for this opening?" was frequently met with a blank stare. Whether you are an entry level employee or an executive who is fully employed, under-employed, or unemployed you want to be building and maintaining your network consistently as a way to enhance career management and job searching. If you wait for your pink slip you've missed the boat. Key places for networking in person include:

Career History
I encourage you to start your networking by going through your career history and reactivating significant relationships, particularly with people who could help you with your job search. One way to reduce any potential awkwardness with re-introductions is to find these people online and invite them to join your online networks. That's a great launchpad for reactivating the relationship.

Professional organizations
Join yours, and begin to attend local chapter meetings, a web resource that has a comprehensive list of professional associations is www.weddles.com.

Attend industry and Career related Conferences

Join Social Organizations and attend events and fundraisers

There are also unemployment support networking groups that have cropped all over during our recent economic challenges, like pinkslipmixers.com you can also go to www.unemploymentlifeline.com to find events and support.

Alumni, professors, or fellow students at your School or university are all part of your network.

Key places to network online include (also see my article: Job Hunting in the Web 2.0 Jungle) linkedin.com, as a matter of fact if you don't have a linkedin account, start one as soon as you finish reading this article.

www.facebook.com
www.twitter.com

Here are some key things to know on your way to becoming a savvy networker:

First: Know what you want and where you are headed?

• Before you attend a networking event or even create a linkedin.com profile. Ask yourself:

"How do I want to be perceived professionally at this point in my career and where am I headed?" or "Do I want advice or do I want to be invited to speak at the Association's next event?" This will help direct your focus on how you want to present yourself, what kind of networking or professional organizations to become involved with and even who to make contact with in the organization.

• Before attending any networking event develop a short 30 second description that powerfully states who you are, what you do and who you serve.

• In the age of online networking it's still important to actually meet in person whenever possible. For example, if you meet someone online who lives locally, that you feel would be a valuable part of your network, invite them for coffee or lunch

• Or if someone you would like to have as part of your network is giving a presentation. Go to it. Ask a good question, and consider introducing yourself when the presentation is complete. Most presenters make themselves available to speak with immediately following a presentation.

• Don't go to a networking event to ask for anything! No one likes to feel as if your sole interest in them is because they can do something for you. Initially, make networking contacts without expectations. Your initial goal is to connect and share information. If you have something to offer then provide them with that offering. Always ask questions like, "How can I help you? How do I know who to refer to you?" Your networking involves a sincere desire to help others. Just like any relationship, relationships with the people in your network develop over time. As your relationships grow people will be very interested in doing what they can to help you with your job search. I encourage you to let people know that you are in the job market, but I reiterate, don't let the first thing out of your mouth be, "Hi, My name is ________ Can you give me a job?" Of course if you are at a networking event specifically for people looking for work, be prepared to share what you are looking for and to offer leads to others if you have them.

• Make sure you follow up and stay in contact with the people you meet. One easy way to maintain contact with your network is to allow your in person networking and online social networking to cross over. After a professional event, in which you have collected business cards of people you want to stay in contact with put them in one of the following categories:

Job Referral Source
Company Contact where there may be a position
Potential Mentor
Potential Business Partner
Potential Friend

Then go to your facebook or linkedin profile and send them a message, letting them know you appreciated meeting them, that you would like stay in touch and to please accept your invite to join your online network.

If You Get Help Say Thanks
When you access your network for help, and get a positive response, say "thank you." Say it more than once, and then say it again. Business leaders are willing to offer time and support when called upon, and they appreciate hearing that the support they've offered actually helped. Too many people get what they want and disappear. Don't be one of those people.

Networking is about making mutually beneficial connections in which you give as much as you get , in relationships that develop over time. It is a part of human nature to help each other in situations where we feel valued and can sincerely make a difference. People do want to help! Your network is critical to the success of your job search. Take one small step today to get yours activated.

***
To learn more about Jason and Conscious Career Coaching to to www.jmannino.com

Elissa Stein: Personal Branding

2009-11-19T18:43:20Z

Last night, at my son's 3rd grade pot luck, while munching on spicy sesame noodles and sipping red wine, I got into an animated conversation with a mom I'd never talked to before about personal branding. She's in between jobs, had worked in 2 different sectors before, and was now figuring out the best way to position herself to find a new job doing what she really loves. She's branding herself.

I found that fascinating. And true. That's what I've been unwittingly doing the past few months. You can't just be yourself anymore. You have to be a new and improved you. A you that's got catch phrases and a snappy bio. A you that can be summed up in short sentences. A you that's bright and shiny. In fact, it's almost like you have to reduce you down to a caricature, a cartoon, a 2-dimensional presence, to sell yourself these days.

And isn't that what we're all doing? Social media is all about personal branding. How else would anyone choose between the millions of people to follow? Everyone needs a shtick, a story, an edge that sets them apart. I delved into this online world at the suggestion of a friend in PR, as I was initially exploring ways to let people know about FLOW (I'm assuming, if you're reading this, no further explanation is necessary -- you're probably overFLOWing at this point). Aside from sharing info about my upcoming book, I had no agenda. But, you have to have an agenda, no matter what anyone says. Otherwise what do you say? And why are you there? So, my agenda, my story, my persona evolved. Author. Vintage coat collector. Knitter. Mother. Yogi. NYC. Those are my facts. And while they trend more interesting than commonplace, that's not enough. I had to pump up the volume. Get sillier. More out there. I pour virtual FLOWtinis at night on twitter. My alter ego "Shameless Self Promoter" takes turns posting for me. I've tweeted statements as insane as "PAY ATTENTION TO ME!" And people did. I've found this group of amazing, smart, edgy, funny, quirky people who are right there with me.

Last night, at the party, I realized my online, sparkly, rhinestoned self is spilling over into the real world. Usually, at these sorts of gatherings, I talk to the few people I know, not comfortable branching out and engaging strangers. But there I was, introducing myself left and right, chatting comfortably away to people I'd never seen before. While the thought of that used to fill me with dread, I had a blast.

I got my first TV booking yesterday. Local cable talk show. I'm finding that enervating. Exciting. I truly can't wait to go and see what happens. And last night I got an email asking me to come talk at a college, that they'd put together a night for me to talk about FLOW and menstruation and education. WHAT A THRILL! I'm already pulling the outline together in my head, imagining how to create a super cool slide show of ads and visuals, thinking how I could put something together for other groups. I love being out there, talking, sharing, engaging. Looking in from the outside, I can see that my online personality is shaping my real-life life.

Pretty cool.

2morrowknight: Ameeda Chowdhury: The Newest Sensation in Social Media

2009-11-19T17:38:48Z

When technology fans think about movers and shakers of social media, they often cite Gina Bianchini of Ning, Evan Williams and Biz Stone of Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Pete Townsend of Mashable and Ashton Kutcher of Katalyst, among many others. As we close out another exciting year, it's natural to wonder what people and innovations will be among the most talked about in 2010 and beyond. One name buzzing in industry circles is Ameeda Chowdhury, the visionary and enterprising CEO of SnazL, the hot, new site for web 2.0 enthusiasts.

Ameeda is, quite simply, a revelation. She talks passionately about social media's proven ability to connect the world, and, to help promote awesome ideas for the greater good. SnazL, she believes, can take things to a new level. She started the company straight out of school with friend Bo Zhao, a fellow Williams College grad. In fact, it was conceived in the basement of their college chapel. While Bo runs operations in Beijing, Ameeda spearheads efforts in New York City, and does all of the company's outreach.

Thus far, her inspired efforts have paid off. A well-received, how-to video about SnazL has hit the web:

Additionally, SnazL is currently partnering with New York Entrepreneur Week, Nov. 16th to Nov. 20th. This is perfect because and marriage of social media and business has been nothing short of amazing. Also, SnazL has partnered on a deal with Singaporean filmmaker Siok Siok Tan and producers Jeff Pulver and Geo Geller, the creative team behind the groundbreaking Twittamentary. This is huge. Make no mistake about it: Ameeda is a tremendous spirit whose enthusiasm for innovation and networking knows no limits. My Q&A with her is confirmation.

You are the creative force behind the social media site Snazl. There's been nothing but great buzz about it. What differentiates it, and sets it apart from sites?

What sets SnazL apart is its interactive media experience. It's much more human and simplifies your online life. User's don't just watch media on SnazL, they can connect interactively around rich media, sync up media across multiple sites, and update across them all. Each SnazL is like it's own video, a rich media video wiki, if you will, that you can embed anywhere. In fact, I was asked recently about Snazl's place in the real-time web movement. It's a great question. SnazL's magic is that it enhances our digital lifestyles from ever-flowing real-time web information streams to a more human stream of richly immersive shared experiences. It unlocks the real-time web's potential further by allowing people to connect across locations based on having common ground/interest.

Snazl is very much a part of the launch of the Twittamentary. What does it aim to achieve and how will it be different from other documentaries on Twitter?

Twittamentary is a crowd-sourced documentary, so we wanted an easy way for the community to be a part of the story and live the experience. Community members can add their video, image, or audio story directly to the Twittermentary Snazl media stream, and pass it on to their friends to add it as well. The SnazL also enables supporters of the Twittermentary to come together and watch clips together in real-time from anywhere. Twittermentary aims to explore the human impact of Twitter. We want to see the lives of all kinds of people. The stories we're getting are tremendous. Some are web celebrities, some are homeless, some are cancer survivors. The cross section of participants is amazing.

2009 is ending on such a favorable note for you. What's next on your radar?

The heart of SnazL is its community, and we want to connect with more people who have the same desire for better connectivity on the web. We want to reach more people and help them discover how SnazL can improve their digital lifestyles, making them more interactive and streamlined. We are looking to grow. We want every human being, in ever corner of this great planet connected to Snazl.

To find out more about Ameeda Chowdhury and her exciting projects, connect with her through her SnazL profile, and, through her Twitter feed. To get more info on the Twitter documentary mentioned above, log on to Twittamentary.

This post was originally published at 2morrowknight.blogspot.com.

Jenifer Fox: Who Are Your Facebook Friends?

2009-11-17T18:08:41Z

"I'm in a board meeting having a miscarriage..." That's the opening statement of the tweet that took only a few hours to move from the so-called "private" sphere of Ms. Penelope Trunk's 20,000 followers on Twitter to CNN News. In addition to the shocking content, one reason the infamous miscarriage tweet carried so much gravitas is that Twitter is still a relatively new concept when it comes to influence in both professional and personal relationships. It has gained a wider audience and has more of an impact than people ever imagined it would. As we wade into the vast sea of social networking, people like Ms. Trunk do so with giant splashes, while others are still on the water's edge considering whether or not to stick in their toes. I am reminded of the paradoxical warning: Don't go near the water until you've learned to swim.

The good news is that whether we are still standing on the shore or out surfing the waves, we are all in the same sea. These are uncharted waters for everyone, and it is natural to wonder how to stay afloat in the rising tide of social networks. With so many people out there bobbing around, there has to be some kind of lifeguard--a system to make sense of it all.

Five categories of friends and followers are described below. You are encouraged to make a list for each category and then cull through the aggregate of your friends and followers and place each contact on the list that best suits the purpose or role they play in your life. Some people will naturally fall into more than one list while others while remain in no-man's land and that is okay, as long as you are conscious about the people who matter.

As you accept new friends or look for new followers, you can do so with an eye toward what list you intend to place them on, and by making these decisions, you will focus your online communications. These categories and the suggestions for how to interact with them can be used on any social network.

Pacesetters

These are the people in your circle of friends and followers who are closely aligned with your work or personal life, but they are not your intimate connections. Pacesetters are the people whom you travel with in cyberspace that keep pace with your life, and you likewise do so with theirs. They are the people with whom you have ongoing contact about your interests. These are your collaborators, those you enjoy having in your life but with whom you might not be particularly close. In any case, they are your steady, engaged personal and professional companions.

This will be your largest circle of friends and followers, and you should plan on spending the most time engaging in the broadest form of communication with them.
For example, Mark is someone who supports my mission of developing the Strengths Movement in schools. He is in consistent communication with me about my interests and goals. He is both a professional and a personal Pacesetter for me. It is important for me to acknowledge his posts and comments to my page. I thank him when appropriate with personal messages. In exchange, I take interest in what he is doing and respond to his posts with a "thumbs up" or a comment to show him I am following him and am attuned to what he is doing, thinking, and writing. Too many people never acknowledge others; they are overly focused on themselves and their own updates. You build relationship capital when you comment, vote that you like or dislike updates, share information, and send personal messages.

Trailblazers

A Trailblazer is someone who gets there ahead of the pack. The Trailblazers in your social networks are the people who consistently inspire you with new ideas or new information. Likewise, when you act as a Trailblazer, you inspire and provide your chosen friends and followers new ideas and information you believe will be valuable to them.

For example, Matthew follows Guy Kawasaki on Twitter. Guy is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm. He also serves as a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Guy is a prolific user of Twitter, regularly posting interesting and often unique bits of information that push the envelope on traditional thinking about a variety of trendy topics for entrepreneurs.

Matt has 125 Twitter followers and 124 Facebook friends. When Matt sees a particularly striking post from Guy, he not only reposts the tweet, but he also direct messages the Twitter followers he has identified as Trailblazers and sends the link to both his Twitter list that he has created for this category and his Trailblazer folder on Facebook. This takes more time than simply posting it to his Twitter and Facebook updates, but in the short time this takes, Matt has made a conscious connection with his Trailblazer friends and followers, and they appreciate the attention. '

Trackers

Anyone who has become familiar with the uses of Facebook, Twitter, and other similar social networks has realized the potential of these programs for conducting various forms of surveillance or to satisfy normal human intrigue that has not been available to us in the past. "I think a more appropriate name for Facebook is Spybook," a friend recently commented to me.

Another acquaintance explained, "I was getting ready to travel 1,000 miles to Minneapolis to my high school reunion when I realized that I was able to satisfy all my curiosities about how my classmates looked, whether or not they were married, what their children looked like, and what they were doing by simply using the Facebook reunion page. Why spend the money for an expensive plane ticket when I can find out all I need to know by looking at people's profiles?"

Both of these friends were right. You can discover all kinds of information about someone by following them on Twitter or befriending them on Facebook. These people whom you elect to follow and befriend in order to keep tabs on them or satisfy your curiosity about what became of them in the years between being their classmates, working with them, or sharing a long since ended romance are called your Trackers. You allowed them into your circle to discover information about them, and once you have it, you don't have need consistent ongoing exchanges--especially if you were just cyber-spying on an old flame that is now clearly burning for someone else.

There are a number of reasons why identifying these people within your circle of friends and followers is important. While you invited them in to satisfy a curiosity, you should be aware that their continued presence might hold either positive or negative results for you. Trackers are the most likely people in your circle to become stalkers.

You don't have to only be in reaction mode when it comes to Trackers. You can track people in an attempt to understand the competition, gather research, or reunite with someone you miss having in your life. The bottom line is that it helps to know who the Trackers in your circle are and to weed out people who may not share your values. Cultivating mindfulness in how you follow others (and how you let them follow you) is always a good idea.

Boosters

Bruce consistently posts funny photos, excellent videos, and makes keen observations about life. Quite often, he scours the Internet for oddball photos and then posts them to his Facebook page in an intriguing album--photos like an old man sitting in hot tub on a deck drinking a beer while wearing an orange hunting cap and pointing his shotgun into his yard at a deer--or a photo of chalk drawn hopscotch board on a driveway, and the final space where one hops is an open manhole. I make an effort to visit Bruce's Facebook page at least once a week just for the little boost of energy he gives me. He never lets me down--his page is consistently full of Booster material. I have about ten Boosters in my circle of friends and followers. These are the people whose additions to Facebook and Twitter inspire, motivate, and humor me or challenge my thinking. It's important to identify these people for two reasons. First, in the hustle and bustle of your business life online--whether its blogging, sending emails, or surfing the Internet--it may be easy to forget these people exist. Time-out for humor or inspiration can be a renewing.

Second, by placing them in a separate category and designating a certain amount of time for checking in on them, you spare yourself the probability of losing yourself (and a great deal of time) on their page. This is important because we have all gone online to accomplish one goal and found ourselves distracted by interesting and humorous posts that we feel compelled to pay attention to... and before we know it, we have forgotten what we originally logged in to do (or run out of time to do it). Online, it is easy to for us all to develop Attention Deficit Disorder. When you categorize your Boosters and set time aside time for them, you avoid getting sucked in and unintentionally wasting too much time.

Champions

Champions are the professional and personal contacts with whom you have the closest relationships. They are the people you can reach out to in need of support--the ones with whom you share your intimate life details, and those you can count on no matter what. They are offline, in real life (IRL) friends, family, and close business associates. In general, most of the communication you do with them will be via list message, personal behind-the-profile-page messages, texts, and emails.

The other day, I noticed this exchange in my newsfeed:

My mom in hospital at St. Joseph's in Ann Arbor as of last night. Doctors not sure what's wrong with her, possible mild heart attack. This is mainly for the extended family that stays connected with each other on Facebook. I'll keep updating as I find out.

Maryanne made this post for her Champions and alerted her entire circle of friends that the post was personal. By doing this, she was clear about her purpose for the update. Within hours, her Champions responded with well wishes and prayers. She responded with this comment:

This is an amazing tool for a support community that you don't' even realize exists. Thanks so much.

Maryanne figured out that strong support communities of all types do exist online, but it is our job to build and nurture them. If Maryann had a list of her Champions, she could send her personal message to the list without having to bundle it. Champions are the people to whom you should send regular (daily or weekly) personal messages. These relationships will take the most time and provide you with the biggest rewards. Contact them often, show interest in their lives, and cultivate their communications.

It may seem like a lot of work to go through your contacts and categorize them like this, but in the end, the time it takes will pale in comparison to the amount of time you would waste sending random (and possibly detrimental) messages out to a group of people, not knowing who is reading your updates, and without understanding why you are updating in the first place. Consistency is the glue that holds a social network together. Each time you log onto your favorite social networking site, you can do so with purpose or haphazardly. You can either initiate communication or simply react to others. The strongest relationships online will be a combination of purposeful initiations and reactions. You will win the day on social networks when you put your Relationship Strengths to work rather than simply reacting. By creating these five lists in your Facebook and Twitter accounts, you will begin to think about people in whole new ways. This exercise will direct you in seeking new friends and followers, as well as help you determine who to let in your circle and why you are letting them in.

Courtney Fortune: Girls Gone Facebook: Raunch Culture In Social Networks

2009-11-16T15:32:20Z

I am no stranger to the ideology of today's Hollywood culture and the go-for-blood standards that often favor airbrushed beauties, outrageous behavior and hyper-sexuality (a la Lady Gaga and Britney Spears). I moved to Los Angeles to pursue my entertainment career. But I'm a small-town jazz singer, with short blonde hair, skin stunned by the LA sun and the smallest breasts Southern California has ever seen - I am no Pussycat Doll. In this cutthroat, image-driven industry I sometimes wonder if I have the guts to run with the Gagas. I definitely have the drive, but there's a difference between doing what it takes to be noticed and doing whatever it takes. Strangely, I see this same mentality whenever I power-up my laptop. It's surprising how our social networking sites and our aim for power and social acceptance among our peers can bare a similar whatever-it-takes attitude.

Facebook started becoming popular around the time I moved to LA. It was an initiation into college life by creating an online profile to meet and communicate with new people. Since then, it has opened up so that everything is exposed through a scrolling feed and everyone has access to everyone else - we have become a generation addicted to knowing what others are doing. As an outlet where you are judged by the photos you were "tagged" in from the previous weekend Facebook is the perfect platform for obstruction of the vitality of image. And like every fad, there is a formula - certain things qualify you as 'hot' or 'not'. The raunch culture of today's young women is not confined to trashy reality TV or Girls Gone Wild. The same kind of behavior exists closer to home. Facebook was one of the first networks to expose normal girls on a very public scale and somehow it perpetuated the desire for girls to flaunt reckless and ridiculous behavior.

The Facebook group "30 Reasons Girls Should Call It A Night" is the perfect example, broadcasting girls' most extreme drunken debauchery. It currently has hundreds of thousands of members, forums and contributed photos. Each seems to glorify drunken blunders, vomiting, stripping, passing out in bizarre places, even urinating in public (Cute!). "30 Reasons" also holds contests for the most outrageous photos, rewarding the winner with cash prizes and bragging rights. "People are perfectly happy to post these sorts of pictures because they recognize that alcohol-related embarrassment will actually improve their social standing." Says Frank Soodeen, a spokesman for Alcohol Concern. The organization recently published a warning that Facebook was "symptomatic of the culture of acceptability around drunkenness". This 'culture of acceptability' is a product of visual availability, the desensitization of this wild behavior.

In addition to the consequences of an unfazed generation, the danger that accompanies the advertisement of a sexual, irresponsible persona should be enough to make anyone think twice about their content. These photos are accompanied by girls' full names, the schools they attend and links to their personal profiles. And because Facebook no longer requires a college email to register, it is open for anyone to discover and stalk female partiers. Even and especially between peers, sexual showmanship can pose a threat. Students surfing profiles between friends can easily identify the girls who make bad decisions, when they run into them at a fraternity party they could see them as an easy target.

And public scrutiny is not just limited to creepers. The new trend for employers, even universities, is to investigate the Facebook profiles of potential hires and students. If you are attached to liable photos, you could have a stigma that follows you your whole career. Just take a cue from celebrity culture, if there photos of you passed out, covered in foam and cheerios with giant penis doodles covering your body, someone will find them.

I know Facebook is just a social venue - but it's also our obsession. And if Facebook is our main source of representation (often replacing old fashioned first impressions and phone calls), shouldn't it be taken seriously? It's the way we treat the freedom, the opportunity to promote ourselves, that bothers me the most. Why is being the slutty party girl the norm now? Women often use Facebook as a place of power and self-promotion but choose do to it in a self-deprecating way. When we overvalue wild behavior as an exercise of 'femininity', it results in a warped view of what being a twenty-first century girl really is. Sometimes I wonder, as an artist and college student, how can I compete? I can only rely on my talent, my strong-will and my tiny chest. Despite it all I have faith that my generation can do more and hopefully someday we'll learn to sign out of this attitude.

'Socially' Acceptable Medicine

2009-11-15T07:19:19Z

While there have been plenty of studies of how pairs of people, especially spouses, affect each others' health, there have been far fewer studies of how health reverberates through large social networks.

Susannah Vila: Are Any Members of Congress Still on MySpace?

2009-11-12T11:09:39Z

Its garish colors and pop-up jingles have finally driven nearly all of the US Congress from MySpace. Unfortunately, they've left behind a lot of their constituents.

Plenty has changed since the spring of 2007, when MySpace was seen as a potentially invaluable tool for politicians. A close look at all 100 senators' social media efforts shows that only 39 of them have profiles on the Murdoch-owned social network; of those 39, only 11 have signed in since the summer. A less rigorous look at the House supports this trend. It's one thing for a blogger, a media outlet or an advocacy organization to flee a social network for greener pastures, but aren't Congress members using social media for slightly different reasons?

If they aren't, then they should be. No Member of Congress would leave the "constituent services" tab off of their website, yet it doesn't seem to have occurred to many beltway insiders what fruitful tools social networks can be for communicating with and representing their constituents.

And the citizens on MySpace are some of the most under-represented. When a Hill staffer asked me: "isn't MySpace just a bunch of teenagers?" he was wrong, but he was also getting at something important: besides the jarring background colors, politicians may have turned a blind eye to MySpace out of a suspicion no one on the site votes. The groups who are traditionally the most under-engaged with politics (read: don't vote) are also the most over-represented on MySpace: they are more likely to be without a college education, to earn under 30k a year and to be Black or Hispanic. By disproportionately focusing their social media efforts on, say, Facebook (where, in contrast, 87 senators boast profiles), Congress only further reinforces the unfortunate divide between the two online spaces.

Taking back the reins on whatever online tools are available to them, including MySpace, would be a boon for challenged incumbents, and for politicians' approval ratings in general. It shouldn't be news that reaching out to individual voters, online or off, is a good move for an aspiring politician. And as a team of researchers just showed, under-represented and under-engaged citizens are more likely be positively affected--including higher approval ratings and propensity to vote--by online communication between their representative and them selves.

Some senators are doing better than others. Chris Dodd boasts a whopping 6955 friends (more than most senators have on Facebook), and has smartly connected his MySpace profile to his Facebook and Twitter accounts. Other challenged incumbents should follow suite: Barbara Boxer, for example, may want to consider supplanting some of the less professional accounts that her fans have set up in favor of a more polished presence. The Myspace constituency, which has more Hispanic visitors than average according to Quantcast, should resonate especially for a Californian [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_California#Hispanic.2FLatino_Americans] like Boxer.

MySpace may have folded -- or focused its attention away from social networking -- by next year. But there will always be enclaves on the web that are, at first glance, out of politicians' reach. By ignoring these spaces, candidates and elected officials only increase the divide between the politically-engaged and the politically-unengaged online. While this is cause for worry, it's also a great opportunity to mobilize those who weren't already.

Chip Conley: When an Entrepreneur Becomes a CEO

2009-11-09T16:20:47Z

Why are entrepreneurs loved and CEO's hated? It's a bit of irony that has not been lost on me this past week as a bunch of cyber-strangers weighed in on their perception of me based upon a photo. Is this a crazy entrepreneur or a CEO who has lost his mind and proper bearings?

Back in June, the Rasmussen Reports released a survey of Americans' favorable vs unfavorable ratings of various professions. At the top of the list with almost no negativity were small business owners and entrepreneurs. Religious leaders were a fair percentage back, but still near the top. Bankers were evenly loved and hated, while journalists, lawyers, and stockbrokers started to make up the bottom of the list. But, in the valley of the despised were CEO's and Members of Congress. Three times as many people give these two professions negative ratings as compared to the positives.

So, what happens when you start out as an entrepreneur but grow into being a CEO due to the success of your company? Is Steve Jobs an entrepreneur or a CEO? How about Richard Branson? So much of it has to do with how you show up - are you still yourself or have you become the empty, shifty "suit"? Well, I started my company almost two dozen years ago as sort of an artist entrepreneur and I've been getting "atta boys" along the way. Yet, when I showed up in the Nevada desert to enjoy a few days of artistic utopia at Burning Man, had a few pics taken of me, and then posted them on my Facebook account, the question of whether I was a wacky entrepreneur or a father figure CEO made me a cause celeb the past few days. Take a look at the blog I wrote for BNET and the nearly 150 comments that arose from this topical question of how much of a CEO's personal life should we be exposed to?

What's most fascinating is to read that those who championed my right to be myself saw me as a grown-up entrepreneur, but those who thought I'd crossed the line by posting my Burning Man photos to my private Facebook account saw me as the CEO who had a certain decorum of professionalism that I needed to maintain (even though, frankly, that sterile decorum may be one of the reasons why Americans score CEO's so low). One of those who counseled me on being a little more professional writes as if he were a self-hating CEO, "As much as you may not enjoy it, being a CEO brings with it the serious responsibilities of being a parental role model." Clearly, this parental thing ain't working based upon the Rasmussen results. More encouraging were the comments like "I am glad to see someone can be successful and not turn into a soulless robot" or "how refreshing it is to see a CEO who is also a human."

One common comment was that I should separate my friends from my business associates on my Facebook page and only let my friends into that part of my site that might have photos like this. I don't know what century they're living in, but many of us - especially those who work long hours in business - find that some of our closest friends are those we connect with during our business day. This work/life frappe has created a blended experience in which it's harder than ever to compartmentalize. Thank God....we may put a few shrinks out of business, but we're likely to be a whole lot happier. Public image should equal private reality.

Ironically, my first book's subtitle was "Daring to be Yourself in Business," and I'm seeing how vital that is in the age of transparency. With the internet and social networks taking a more prominent place in our lives, being true to yourself (and everyone else) is almost a requirement. In fact, I'd suggest that the Rasmussen poll is really a litmus test for authenticity. The more people see the participants in the profession as authentic, the more heroic they become in the eyes of the public. Authenticity is where the culture is headed. It's an evolutionary process (coincidentally, the theme of this last year's Burning Man was "Evolution"). And, I'm still just figuring out my evolutionary process of gravitating from being an entrepreneur to being a CEO. Yet, this experience has just reinforced a powerful lesson. Maybe the role model CEO I'm supposed to be isn't the traditional icon that people don't like and don't trust, but it's the CHO: the Chief Human Officer. That's really the conundrum a modern age role model CEO must solve: how can we be human and be a CEO at the same time?

Chip Conley is the Founder and CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality and the author of PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo From Maslow.

Tagged.com Settles With New York, Texas Over Invite Fight

2009-11-09T12:51:18Z

NEW YORK — The social networking Web site Tagged.com has adopted reforms on the use of invitation e-mails after being accused of essentially stealing the e-mail addresses of some 60 million Internet users, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced Monday.

Cuomo charged in July that the San Francisco-based Tagged.com sent out e-mails to members' contact lists, asking recipients to view private photos posted by their friends. But when the recipients tried to access the photos, they were asked to sign up for the site, and the e-mail addresses in their contact lists were then lifted to send out more solicitation emails, Cuomo said.

Scott Campbell: Crowdsourced Band Release "I've Got Nothing" Single

2009-11-08T19:05:25Z

A band composed of four teenage YouTubers has released an entirely-crowdsourced single.

19-year-old Charlie McDonnell joined forces with three other teenage YouTube users to take part in a BBC Switch project named 'ChartJackers', in which they are attempting to break in to the UK chart in an unorthodox style; they have no budget, no experience and have to crowdsource everything - musicians, producers and promotion.

The song,"I've Got Nothing," was a combined effort, with a number of users coming up with the lyrics. The group even managed to get help and advice from Fame Academy vocal coaches Carrie and David Grant.

Last week, the Chartjackers launched a two-pronged social media attack on UK Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills. They encouraged Twitter users to send him Tweets and emails about their song in a bid to have it played on air. You can download "I've Got Nothing" on iTunes from today.

Will crowdsourced music be the future? Leave a comment.

Tom Vander Ark: How Social Networking Will Transform Learning

2009-11-07T09:47:52Z

There are plenty of theories about how to improve education. Most focus on what appear to be big levers--a point of entry and system intervention that appears to provide some improvement leverage. These theories usually involve 'if-then' statements: 'if we improve this, then other good stuff will happen.' Leading theories focus on people, schools, policy and community. Nonprofit ecosystems develop around theories, they ebb and flow with foundation interest. Although seldom discussed, leading levers differ substantially in terms of risk and return.

People. Teach for America was an early leader in what is now commonly referred to as the Human Capital agenda in education. With increased federal and foundation attention, alternative certification programs have achieved some scale but still train a fraction of all teachers and leaders.
• Problem addressed: weak talent distribution
• Key assumption: teacher effectiveness is the key variable; more good teachers will improve student achievement
• Risk: low risk especially with proven recruiting and training programs
• Return: low leverage for teacher programs (one announced this week costs $70k/placement), moderate leverage for leadership, potential for sizable impact with sustained investment over time
• Example: Advance Innovative Education, New Leaders for New Schools, New Teacher Project

Schools. Charter schools are the leading representative of the view that 'good schools will improve the system.' Proponents usually add a dose of competition and choice to theories about scaled impact. While market share in 14 communities exceeds 20%, national market share of the burgeoning new school development sector serves less than 4% of US students.
• Problem addressed: obsolete school designs with restrictive rules
• Key assumption: good schools are sticky--once they develop a constituency, they'll be around for a while
• Risk: low risk especially with proven models and operators
• Return: low-moderate leverage (funders bet on moderate returns given optimistic assumptions about competition, scale, and diffusion)
• Examples: Achievement First, Aspire, Green Dot, KIPP

Policy. A growing number of think tanks and advocacy groups are attempting to nudge the Gordian knot of policy in a slightly more positive and coherent direction.
• Problem addressed: three-tiered mess of American education policy
• Key assumption: a smart investment in advocacy can yield big returns
• Risk: high risk of little or no progress, possible unintended consequences
• Return: high leverage if successful; opportunity to change the opportunity set for millions of students
• Example: EdTrust, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Equality Project, EdSector, ConnCAN

Community. A small number of diehards attempt to organize community support or community services for better schools.
• Problem addressed: underserved communities are disenfranchised
• Key assumption: organizing creates power for change (and/or schools can't do it alone)
• Risk: transitory support and high risk of bureaucratically thwarted efforts
• Return: moderate-high leverage if support can be built around key opportunities
• Example: Communities in Schools, Parent Revolution, PICO, Parent Organizing Consortium

You could add 'data' to the lever list, but given the wide recognition of its importance, better data is usually incorporated into strategies in each category. You could add 'systems' approaches but they are usually cobbled together bundles of these four--more community for the left-leaning foundations, more choice for the right.

One problem not addressed by these theories is the lack of innovation diffusion in education--a good idea won't cross the street. Weak improvement incentives and strong bureaucracy have created a lousy marketplace for products and ideas.

In other sectors, platforms have proven to be a big lever: iTunes for music, Wal-Mart for consumer goods, Windows for computers. Platforms combine a set of technologies--including some we didn't know we needed that instantly become indispensable--into a disruptive value engine.

I'm betting on social learning platforms as a lever for improvement at scale in education. Instead of a classroom as the primary organizing principle, social networks will become the primary building block of learning communities (both formal and informal). Smart recommendation engines will queue personalized content. Tutoring, training, and collaboration tools will be applications that run on social networks. New schools will be formed around these capabilities. Teachers in existing schools will adopt free tools yielding viral, bureaucracy-cutting productivity improvement.

In the coming decade, most middle and high schools will adopt some version of 1:1 technology, online learning will play an increasing role, and learning experiences will be conducted and coordinated on social learning platforms. While adoption won't be simple and smooth, it will cut through the typical barriers that block other reforms.

The platforms that get big will have a business model behind them. Foundations will contribute to niche platforms and apps, but the big platforms will be dot coms not dot orgs. There's no stopping it and that's the beauty of disruptive innovation.

Hope Plus, Global Caring Portal, To Launch In December

2009-11-06T17:58:21Z

Phil Noble describes Hope Plus, his upcoming online action network, as "a global eBay for caring." Hope Plus is being developed by Noble's PoliticsOnline, and plans to launch during December to coordinate with the Copenhagen Climate conference.

The site is attempting to get involvement from Barack Obama and Bill Gates.

So, what will Hope Plus do? Early buzz suggests it will act similarly to online social cause networks like TakePart.com and Causecast.org. (HuffPost Impact is partially managed by Causecast.org)

From BBC News:

The concept was in part inspired by Mr Noble's previous work with the BBC. He was a key advisor to the now defunct BBC Action Network, a nationwide portal for community activism...."I'd been throwing out the idea for a global network... and the consensus was - now was the time," he told E-Government Bulletin....The portal will be multi-lingual and consist of a range of activism tools. Companies such as Microsoft, Monster, Cisco and IBM and participating in creating the site....It will be user-generated, in terms of content and how it develops.

Catherine Ventura: New Twitter Lists: Open House or Velvet Rope?

2009-11-05T02:30:17Z

Twitter has been rolling out its new "lists" feature over the past couple of weeks and the buzz of excitement in the Twittersphere has been palpable. The Internets have resounded with cries of "Game changer!" and "We're all curators now!"

Initially, the idea of Twitter Lists seemed like a total win-win. Active tweeters in the Twitter Open House could instantly become 140-character versions of Arianna Huffington, wielding curatorial power, creating and publishing Twitter Lists called "Fave Fives in Wasilla," and "100 Most Influential Silicon Valley Gardeners," and "500 Most Awesome List Makers." It was a heady feeling.

But then a funny thing happened. Some of that excitement was replaced by a quiet but insistent buzz of anxiety as previously self-confident tweeters suddenly turned into "unlisted" wallflowers, startled and a bit bewildered by the enormity of the unexpected change.

In case you're not already familiar with the feature: you may now create up to 20 lists, each containing up to 500 tweeters. Those lists may be kept private (like "Avatars I Have Secret Crushes On") or, more significantly, made public. Your public Twitter Lists are visible to everyone, whether or not they follow you, and so are other users lists that include you. So now, instead of just following one master list of Twitter accounts that you've (presumably) carefully researched and created, you can now create sub-lists (something that was already possible with third-party programs like Tweetdeck but not with Twitter itself.) You can also -- and this is the real news -- dip into Twitterstreams that other users have created and "bookmark" them by following the entire Twitter List or pick and choose tweeters from them to add to your own lists.

It's a whole new party and that party looks a bit like high school or a private club -- with tweeters already "requesting" to get on lists. (It also bears a slightly unnerving resemblance to Old Media. What is Vanity Fair if not Graydon Carter's list?)

Twitter Lists are clearly a convenient way to organize tweet streams by affinity groups, like location, topic, or expertise. As Twitter founder Jack Dorsey explained at a recent event exploring Twitter and the collective unconscious, he's always been fascinated by maps, grids, and commons. For Dorsey, the new lists transform Twitter into something a little more systematized, something easier to navigate.

But at the same time, Twitter Lists have allowed an element of exclusivity and in-crowd mentality to suddenly flourish among users who seem only too happy to deploy their velvet ropes. Many of the lists being created are named things like "The Top Thought Leaders in Tech," and "The 100 Most Awesome Tech Tweeters" and "Coolest Tech Twitterers" or most simply, "My Fave Tech Tweeters." And so, where previously the only public choice was "Do I or don't I choose to follow you?" now list makers are very publicly judging the value of other tweeters by which lists they include them in, and which lists they don't.

There is also somewhat of a gold rush effect. Industrious list-makers who got the feature in its beta roll out have already flooded the field with lists of their favorites and uploaded them to a new list-aggregating site called Listorious, creating an instant list-gap. Though anyone can upload their lists to Listorious, whose mission, according to CEO Greg Galant, is "to make it easy for people to find the good stuff on Twitter," clearly not everyone will. And some tweeters have friends who create more lists than others, while other tweeters have friends who, for whatever reasons (jobs, perhaps?), haven't had the time or inclination to create any lists of their own.

Because "being listed" is being touted as the new economy of influence, all the hard work users have poured into attracting a Twitter following may suddenly have been in vain if those followers don't get cracking and make lists.

So while some dance cards filled up immediately -- 10000+ lists have sprung up to date listing Ashton Kutcher as a "celeb," 11,000 listing @Mashable, 15,000 listing @BarackObama, and multiple tech lists covering Silicon Valley royalty -- some dance cards remain painfully empty, leading such respected Social Media thought leaders as Chris Brogan to question whether it's a good idea to create something that excludes a significant part of your following.

Thanks to Twitter Lists, there are also several new public metrics that appear on each user's Twitter home page. Before, you only had to worry about how many people you followed and how many followed you back. Now, the stats are much more specific and complex. The new world includes: the number of people who have listed you, the number of people who are following the lists that include you, the lists you yourself have created, the number of lists you are following, and the number of people who are following your lists. It is not only confusing, but also potentially humbling and dispiriting if no one has listed you and no one is following the "awesome" lists you created.

While Twitter Lists will certainly provide useful short cuts, allowing users to benefit from the fruits of other users research and expertise, lists change what was a fundamentally democratic system, creating a "listing class."

The new Twitter economy may very well be the dominance of the list makers with negotiations for quid pro quo, the creation of new Twitter accounts in order to create new lists, or, worse, payment for inclusion in lists.

And perhaps most ominously, you have no control over either what Twitter Lists you are on, or the names of the lists on which you appear. You may consider yourself a serious scholar, for instance, but turn up on a list called "Good for a Laugh." You may be looking for work and turn up on a list called "Slacker Frat Bros." You may end up feeling thoroughly misunderstood. And it's all taking place in public.

Twitter's creators have said that they believe "lists will be a new discovery mechanism" and there is certainly the promise that lists will make the ever-more-crowded Twitter more manageable and bring back some of its serendipity, allowing users to find interesting and valuable new people through recommendations by trusted sources (Trust me -- Ashton Kutcher is a celebrity!) Lists will particularly benefit new users who don't have to spend months digging for gold, looking for other like-minded tweeters, they can simply follow who another user suggests they follow.

Let's hope Twitter Lists don't turn Twitter into a more stratified environment that is dominated by cool kid list-makers, leaving other frustrated and disappointed users standing behind the velvet ropes, on the outside looking in.

Brandon Mendelson: Soulless Social Media Words

2009-11-04T14:18:54Z

Lately I can’t seem to read a blog post that doesn’t involve any of the following words and phrases.

These words are a menace. One worse than banner ads were in the late 90’s and swine flu is today. I will not read any post that excessively or egregiously uses the following:

“Attention”

“Attention Economy”

"mindcasting"

"Thought leaders"

"influencer"

“Community”

"Engage" (also: Engaged and Engagement)

“Content”

“Tweet” (or any derivative of it).

“Social Media” (it’s social publishing!)

“Conversation”

“Dialogue ”

“Trust”

“Trust Economy”

“Passion”

“Brand”

“Personal Branding”

“Real-time web”

“Connections”

“Web 2.0″ (or the looming Web 3.0. Actually, anything followed by 2.0)

All of these are empty, meaningless drivel that started out well and were quickly fucked into the ground by people looking to make money.

Hellfire is not hot enough or sufficient enough to punish the people who want us to choke down this mind rotting bullshit.

Things I Rather Do Than Read These Words Again

-Sleep with Tila Tequila

-Donate both kidneys

-Listen to Carlos Mencia do stand-up

-Work at Fox News

-Stab myself with a spork

-Get a Boston Red Sox tattoo on my face.

-Read Gawker

-Wrestle a polar bear

-Fight a shark

-Spring Bernie Madoff from jail

-Watch “Catwoman”